Heretofore, various arrangements are known for effecting filling of containers with flowable product, such as ice cream or the like. This type of product, sometimes referred to as “high overrun”, can be problematic to fill effectively, in view of the air which the product contains. Accurate and efficient filling of containers can be complicated by the nature of such high overrun products.
Heretofore, filling arrangements have typically been configured as a “single lane”, that is, with a single source of the flowable product serially and individually filling containers as they are moved with respect to the product source. Use of servo-lift tables for holding each container as it is filled, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,687, hereby incorporated by reference, permits accurate container filling, with the servo-lift table generally functioning ad a servo-weight cell control.
While in previous systems the lift table was the trigger for controlling flow, the present invention facilitates filling of multiple lanes of containers, with the positions of pistons of multiple fill pumps utilized to manipulate product, instead of direct extrusion.